The NFL trade deadline has come and gone and the Cincinnati Bengals opted not to make a move despite the concerning number of injuries piling up for them.
In Monday night's blowout loss alone, the Bengals lost Chidobe Awuzie for the year, saw that their offense has a totally different look when Ja'Marr Chase isn't present, and realized once and for all that Jonah Williams isn't the answer at left tackle.
With all of that in mind, it would have made sense for the stripes to add some help before the trade deadline expired but they decided to stand pat and not make any moves. Fans are used to the team not being aggressive at the deadline but this year felt like a good year to buck that trend.
Trade deadline comes to a close. #Bengals sit out, as usual.
— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) November 1, 2022
They will need to take a deep look internally at how they want to handle the Awuzie injury’s substantial ripple effect.
No trades made by the Bengals despite big-time needs
The injury to Awuzie gave the Bengals the best excuse to dip their toes into the trade deadline pool but they decided to stick with the guys they already have on the roster. The rookies Dax Hill and Cam Taylor-Britt are going to be heavily leaned on in the second half of the season and that's what the team spent high draft picks on. They clearly believe in these guys.
This organization has always relied on its draft picks to help them compete and win games so fans weren't surprised that the team didn't want to part ways with those picks. As Andrew Russell notes in the tweet below, however, the lack of depth on this team is a result of poor drafting by the team. It feels like they would have fared better by adding a sure thing rather than attempting to add talent through the draft.
If you wanna know why the Bengals need to hang-on to their picks, it's because they have little depth in a lot of spots.
— Andrew Russell (@Andrew_Russell7) November 1, 2022
Why they have little depth? Get on Wikipedia and start looking at past draft classes. Start in 2019.
I'm not surprised that the stripes opted to stay put and go with the guys they had on the roster but it doesn't mean that it's not disappointing. While teams like the Dolphins and in-division rival Ravens made trades and became a better team, the Bengals sat back and did nothing to improve their chances of competing in the AFC.
Cincinnati was fortunate not to get bitten by the injury bug much last year and that helped them on their magical quest to the Super Bowl but that hasn't been the case through the first half of the 2022 season. They really could have used some help at the trade deadline and they very well might regret not making a move.